1887.] 435 [Wright. 



northeast corner of the county, on the Little Miami across from 

 Loveland. The river makes something of an elbow here, open to 

 the west. This space is occupied by a gravel terrace about fifty 

 feet above the stream. The terrace is composed in places of very 

 coarse material, resembling very much that of Trenton, N. J., 

 where Dr. Abbott has found implements. The excavation is about 

 one-quarter of a mile back from the river, near the residence of 

 Judge Johnson. The section shows much coarser material near 

 the surface than at the bottom. The material is largely of the lime- 

 stones of the region, with perhaps ten percent of granitic pebbles. 

 The limestone pebbles are partially rounded, but are largely ob- 

 long. Some of them are from one to three feet in length. These 

 abound for the upper twenty feet of the section on the east side 

 toward the river. One granitic boulder was about two feet in di- 

 ameter. On the west side of the cut, away from the river, mastodon 

 bones were found, a year or two ago, in a deposit of sand underly- 

 ing the coarser gravel and pebbles. It was here, about thirty feet 

 below the surface, that Dr. Metz found the palaeolithic implement 

 referred to. 



In the light of the exposition just given, these implements will 

 at once be recognized as among the most important archaeological 

 discoveries } r et made in America, ranking on a par with those of 

 Dr. Abbott, at Trenton, N. J. They show that in Ohio, as well as 

 on the Atlantic coast, man was an inhabitant before the close of the 

 glacial period. We can henceforth speak with confidence of inter- 

 glacial man in Ohio. It is facts like these which give archaeologi- 

 cal significance to the present fruitful inquiries concerning the date 

 of the glacial epoch in North America. When the age of the mound 

 builders of Ohio is reckoned by centuries, that of the glacial man 

 who chipped these palaeolithic implements must be reckoned by 

 thousands of years. 



A word may properly be said with reference to the bearing of 

 these facts upon the date of man's appearance in America. In 

 the first place, it should be observed that, to say man was here be- 

 fore the close of the glacial period only fixes a minimum point as to 

 his antiquity. How long he may have been here previous to that 

 time must be determined by other considerations. Secondly, with 

 our present knowledge of glacial phenomena, the date of the close of 

 the glacial period is regarded as much more modern than it was a few 

 years ago. Sir Charles Lyell's estimate of 35,000 years as the aoe 



